40oz
diRTbAg
Posts: 5,944
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Post by 40oz on Jul 8, 2021 6:45:56 GMT -5
ive seen a few videos of this game and ive heard its really hard. i decided to give it a try last night and holy wow
its pretty wild, the world rotates as you turn side to side, so as you pull up or down you gotta be careful youre not steering into the ground. the camera angle blocks your machinegun fire most of the time, your instincts are to fire missiles at the oncoming targets, but if you dont have your targets locked on the missiles are wasted, firing straight into the ground.
the flight formations of the enemies are wild. sometimes it feels like they set you up to line you up for a shot on purpose. youll steer out of the way of oncoming planes, then the next row is firing missiles into the only path of escape. its a pretty wild ride and an excellent application of the Sega Genesis technology.
i found the gameplay disorienting at times but very addictive. in every play i made a little more progress. the earlier stages also begin to feel easier after every attempt and i forget why it ever felt hard.
initially, my instincts are to panic and flail around the screen but if you keep your cool and calmly dodge things while trying to keep your aircraft mostly centered, you'll be good for the most part.
also holy shit these bonus arounds have you just shooting guns and missiles at camps and innocent villages on the ground. shockingly violent but that kinda shit is probably lost on little kids.
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dmdr
Doomer
is this how I add a title under my avatar?
Posts: 588
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Post by dmdr on Jul 8, 2021 8:09:38 GMT -5
yeah BUT are you playing with the hydraulics the way God intended OR just sitting normally like some kinda retarded Satanist?!?!?
TBH Afterburner is really the epitome of Sega's arcade output, all flash and not really that much substance. They made a bunch of games along the same lines (Space Harrier, that helicopter one -- Blue Thunder?) but Afterburner was the funnest simply due to the fancy coin-op. Actually the others might have had hydraulics too, but I liked planes as a kid so that was the one I played then and remember now. I wasted a lot of time on the Amiga version too.
fuck it I'm on a nostalgia trip. Here's some music from the Amy version of Super Hang-on, it's a Sega game too so kinda on topic and I post what I want anyway so thhhpbt.
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40oz
diRTbAg
Posts: 5,944
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Post by 40oz on Jul 8, 2021 11:38:13 GMT -5
i did not play the way god intended. i used an arcade fightstick as the controller for the Sega Genesis port. it was still a wild ride dmdr what do you mean by not really any substance? Compared to what?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2021 19:51:15 GMT -5
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dmdr
Doomer
is this how I add a title under my avatar?
Posts: 588
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Post by dmdr on Jul 8, 2021 20:16:36 GMT -5
the wikipedia article is revealing: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Burner#Referencesyou'll note there's a bunch of links to contemporaneous reviews. Basically all of them talk about how fast and pretty it is, and how impressive the cabinet is, but you'll see very little mention of strategy or anything like that (one does wonder whether that means much though because games journalism was kinda already the propaganda arm of the industry by that point. Basically all the 'reviews' in that Top Score magazine are pure hype, for example). The Sinclair User one, which was a bit more circumspect, also made the same point I did about the excessive similarity to Space Harrier (actually in some ways Sega's 3D games follow the Call of Duty/pornography model of being a series of escalations of essentially the same content). OK so since arcade games aren't noted for their depth you might be thinking that it's unfair to demand strategy from them, but the better ones do require a little thought. Raiden and Gradius (I think shmups have aged the best out of all arcade games, as a general rule) allow you to choose the upgrades that you've earned in one way or another so you have a small element of customisation there. Going back a bit further, Defender has a radar screen showing the location of the enemies and allows you to turn around so you can make choices about how to approach the level you're playing (iirc Fantasy Zone also has this and is probably Sega's best arcade game, although I've mostly only played the Master System version... which omits the radar. Sigh). Actually a few of those magazines also mention Xybots, which I guess came out at about the same time, and that I discovered recently and is a sort of proto-Doom in that you've got exploration and dodging while coming under attack from all sides as the meat of gameplay, while also incorporating purchasable upgrades for some character customisation between levels. Meanwhile all Afterburner has is ammo management -- I don't think it even has powerups? You've played it more recently, obviously, so tell me if I'm wrong.
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